In the footnote of success story is consistency. Whatever happens, you do not give up. That is the cardinal rule.
I’ve been led to believe that success is 90% consistency. I hate it, but it’s probably true.
The thing is — consistency has never been my strong suit. Heck, I feel like it’s my ultimate creative nemesis. Not to mention consistency with habits and routines, I can’t even stay consistent with my interests. If I could just bring myself to invest the same amount of passion in just one project for long enough, perhaps I could actually see my ideas come to fruition for once.
It doesn’t matter how hard I plead with my ADHD brain — it’s never going to work. I’m often left with feeling cursed with the gift of endless ideas but without the power to get anything done.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown my hands up in the air and called it quits. You can still fail over and over, no matter how hard you try. You could’ve done everything right. But when you got brain like that, you’re not left with many options. It’s not about laziness or lack of discipline, motivation or drive. You’re probably here reading this because you’ve already tried to tackle those potential problems but to no avail. Is there something else you’re missing? A secret sauce, perhaps, or a missing ingredient?
Even if you’ve exhausted your options, and you think you’re confronting a dead-end, I promise you there’s more.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been plagued with ideas. When I was in school, my interests spanned from starting small businesses to writing novels. How many businesses and novels did I end up with? Zero. And it’s not for the lack of trying either.
During the COVID pandemic, I started— and might I add, impulsively — an online business selling dog accessories (inspired by my new puppy at the time). I rode the excitement train for the first few months before giving up on the endeavor altogether.
In college, I began a blog site with every intention of posting about my life and experiences, but that didn’t last long before the idea of writing every week started to seem boring to me. I changed my mind a couple months to a year later when I began writing on Medium. I took another couple months of pause before I archived all my old posts and started anew. And now, here I am.
Yes, I change my mind quite a bit. It’s not even that I jump into an idea half-assed. I swear to you, I dive into a project with every intention of going through with it. I would invest so much of my time, energy and money into whatever I was into at the time. I just needed to stay consistent — work at it every day and see slow improvements before my efforts could pay off, but I would never get to that point.
Dealing with a broken brain
No, your brain is not broken, but I’m glad I got your attention!
I have ADHD, and that makes many things harder, including staying consistent. Even if you don’t have ADHD, consistency is not an easy task.
Being neurodivergent also gives me many advantages, including boosts in creativity and problem-solving, both of which are very important to success.
If normal tips for productivity do not work for you, then you need to find other ways to succeed. Other people’s recipe for success does not always translate to your recipe for success. Find your own strengths, and use those to your advantage.
Working with your strengths
As I mentioned, my strengths include creativity and problem-solving. I struggle with routines, and it’s hard for me to stay interested in one thing for long, but I have bursts of extreme passion where I can get a lot done in a short amount of time.
There’s no use in trying to fit yourself into someone else’s mold. I’ve learned that just because it works for other people, doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily work for me. Part of trial-and-error is gaining the confidence to do things my way, even if it means failing my way too.
Consistency is an important in many ways, but I’m wasting my time and energy if I try to push it so that I can be “great” when it isn’t what makes me “great” in the first place.
I might never become a master of a craft if I can’t put in the hours, and I’ve come to accept that fact. There’s nothing wrong with being a Jack-of-all-trades. Entrepreneurs are made up of people like us — they pick up new things super quickly and come up with creative solutions to things others might not even think of. We’re quick on our feet, and no one thinks the way we do.
Failing again, and trying again… and again
The only thing I’ve been consistent with is giving up.
The problem has never been starting a project, but continuing with it has always been a challenge. I’d abruptly abandon it for no reason at all for months at a time at a time before remembering — oh, I’m supposed to be doing this thing that I had suddenly lost complete willpower to continue six months ago.
It’s hard not to get discouraged by the never-ending cycle of promising myself to do better, but never actually doing better. But there are ways in which failing can actually be good for you.
I can’t promise you that every time you fail, you will get closer to succeeding. I can’t promise you that because I’ve never witnessed it. I’ll let you know when I actually accomplish what I’ve set out to accomplish.
Every time I fail, I get something out of it that is different from what I had expected. I learn something about myself each time I fail, and it helps me to succeed in other ways.
And despite my less-than-ideal track record, I still try. I try because it only has to work once. There are a million ways you can fail, and only one way to succeed. So it’s okay to keep trying over and over again, and there is certainly nothing wrong to fail over and over again.
Sometimes, we don’t give enough credit for trying after we had failed. Sure, I had left this project in the cold for a year but, there’s nothing wrong with another attempt, or another, and another… however many times it takes to get it right.
And even if I don’t get it right, I can put it to rest knowing that I’ve tried.
